DUTCH ISLANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 84, 6 October 1944, Page 6

DUTCH ISLANDS

BATTLE NOW STARTED ; Rec. 1.45. p.m. . LONDON, Oct 5; The battle for the Dutch islands appears to have begun, says Reuters correspondent with the British Second Army. Nine miles of both the southern and northern banks of the great Scheldt waterway is in Canadian hands, and the Germans are withdrawing northward in such haste that General. Crerar's men in some sectors are advancing against extremely light opposition.

Isolated enemy, strongpoints continue to fight" on just outside the Antwerp Perimeter, but slowly and surely they are being eliminated. With-the British nearing Tilburg and the Poles sallying up the road to Breda from Baarle Nassau, the enemy on the western flank of General ; Dempsey's Nijmegen corridor is facing a very difficult problem. • ' ; ; ' Reuters correspondent with the Sec-: ond Tactical Air Force says that re-; connaissance pilots reported enemy movements today eastward through the Zuid Beveland causeway, between Walcheren and the Dutch mainland.

The German High Command faces the critical decision whether to hold on to Rotterdam, the Hague, and Haar*. lem, or make a desperate effort to pull: out through country which has already: been .made difficult for transport by the Tactical Air Force's unceasingl efforts.